Unstinting in its condemnation of apathy, expedience, and the people in power who take advantage of those traits in the population at large, LIONS FOR LAMBS nonetheless is a flat work that feels more like a series of actors’ exercises than the incisive movie it wants to be. Like the college professor trying to shock… Read More »
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA sweeps across the big screen like a stifled yawn. Adapted from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s poetic novel by Ronald Harwood and directed by Mike Newell, the grand passion that dominates the life of its hero, Florentino (Javier Bardem), fails to rise to the occasion. Rather than the stuff of great… Read More »
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is a nail-biting masterpiece of suspense, operating on a philosophical level that is as sophisticated as it is compelling. It takes its tropes and its idioms from classic noirs, but with nary a cliché, and with a soul more hard-boiled than the film… Read More »
THE ELIZABETH — THE GOLDEN AGE
ELIZABETH, THE GOLDEN AGE is as ambitious and as opulent as its predecessor, ELIZABETH. Both starring Cate Blanchett in the title role, both directed with panache by Shekhar Kapur, the former was a triumph in depicting the private Elizabeth subsuming her personal desires in order to become a national icon. The latter is a muddle… Read More »
THE TUDORS — THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
There is a cautionary lesson within THE TUDORS, the vibrant, lush, and suitably visceral mini-series depicting the life, loves, and politics of England’s Henry VIII. Henry, played with frank carnality by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, fancies himself a humanist, the fashionable thing to be during the Renaissance. Under the tutelage of Thomas More, soon to be… Read More »
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
When the question “Was that supposed to be a comedy”? floats to mind after a film is concluded, there is no answer that bodes well for said flick. Such is the case with THERE WILL BE BLOOD, Paul Thomas Anderson’s robust, and fitfully manic piece of work that takes Upton Sinclair’s classic novel, “Oil,” and… Read More »
CASSANDRA’S DREAM
The funny thing, in the sense of odd rather than comedic, about CASSANDRA’S DREAM is that even though it is filmed in color, it is remembered in black and white. In Woody Allen’s lastest film, he returns to his consideration of morality, this time through the lens of classical Greek tragedy. Two brothers, Ian (Ewan… Read More »
EXPERIMENT, THE
S ometimes science tells us more than we really want to know. Though in these troubled times we cling to the notion that we as a species are basically decent and moral, there is that sneaking suspicion that we are perhaps clinging to a pipe dream of civilization and that the truth is something best… Read More »
ONE HOUR PHOTO
Its not a terribly original premise. Lonely guy longs for the warmth and comfort of a family and becomes attached to what he considers to be the ideal set up. Still, obsession can be tantalizing fodder for film when handled correctly, which in the case of ONE HOUR PHOTO, its not. It has all the excitement,… Read More »
MICHAEL CLAYTON
MICHAEL CLAYTON begins with a monologue by Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), a brilliant but unhinged litigator who has spent too much of his life defending the indefensible. In it, beautifully encapsulated, is the heart of the film, which is to say, that it’s only a madman who has the clarity of vision to do the… Read More »
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